When I visited DC for the DSL Gathering of the Clan, I got in touch with Naval Surface Warfare Carderock, home of the David Taylor Model Basin, as well as several other facilities¹ that support the design of new ships and systems for the US Navy, most prominently in hydrodynamics and seakeeping.

Lord Nelson and me at the main towing tank

NSWC Carderock is half an hour northwest of DC, and we were greeted by Edvin from the Public Affairs staff. He took us to the Model Basin, and talked through the basics of the facility, one of the 10 warfare centers that support the USN's procurement needs. In the atrium, they had David Taylor's original desk, and a lovely model of the final Lexington battlecruiser configuration. We were then taken to the wood shop, where they build the models. Back when DTMB was opened in the late 30s, these models were made by hand out of either paraffin wax or wood, with skilled craftsmen working to match the hull lines drawn by the naval architects. Today, the methods are rather different. The initial drawings are done on computers, and they are made physical by computer-controlled machine tools, either directly into wood, or by carving a mold which is then used to create a hull in fiberglass over a wood frame. They're doing a lot of work in 3D printing, and I got to see some very nice samples, but they aren't using it on a large scale yet. The models are then prepared by fitting them with the various appendages like rudders and propellers, as well as the instrumentation for measuring forces. They also get fine bumps near the bow to make sure the flow over the model is turbulent, as it would be on a real ship. The model is then moved to one of the three main hydrodynamic facilities at Carderock, and ballasted to the correct condition for the test. The light weight of the wood and fiberglass models gives the engineers great control over configuration, which they wouldn't have if something like steel was used. Read more...

Welcome back to Year 5 of Naval Gazing. The Open Threads will continue as before, with the ability to talk about anything you want that isn't culture war.

Last weekend was the DSL meetup in DC, and I had a blast. I got to meet Cassander and Directrix Gazer in person, as well as a number of other people who show up here more rarely. Everyone was a delight to talk to, even when I started rambling about some obscure naval battle, and I'm looking forward to next year.

I also should probably clarify one thing I should have said on Wednesday. I don't think the reduced posting schedule will result in a 50% drop in words. There are lots of times when I'm going to want to get more of those out quickly, and in that case, I'll probably make the individual posts longer. For instance, I suspect that the Submarines in the Falklands post would have been 2 parts instead of 3.

2017 overhauls (because those are back now) are A Brief History of the Battleship, Iowa Part 1 and Fire Control Part 1. 2018 overhauls are Survivability Fire and Mission Kills, Underbottom Explosions, The Last Days of the High Seas Fleet, Samar, Turret and Barbette and (now rather obsolete) The Space Force and the FAA. 2019 overhauls are JDAM, Riverine Warfare - Europe, Cluster Bombs and Leyte Gulf 75. For 2020, SecDef Espurr turns one now, The Battleship and the Carrier, The World Wonders and Where the Blog Begins.

Today was traditionally the day when the US acknowledged the Navy, although that practice largely ended in the late 40s. It's also, not coincidentally, the blog's birthday, and today marks four years of writing for me here.

It's been an interesting four years, and I've covered a lot of ground. I'm very happy with what I've created, and with the friends I've made in the comments. Thanks to all of you have followed me through this. Particular thanks this year go to dndnrsn, Rolf Andreassen and ketil for proofreading, Suvorov and Alsadius for contributing, Said Achmiz for hosting and Lord Nelson for putting up with me. And to those who followed me through various museums and ships. Also to the PAO staff at NSWC Carderock, for agreeing to show me around.

I was originally planning to take November off, but after talking to Directrix Gazer, I'm changing things up. Instead, I'm going to drop my posting schedule to once a week on Sundays, plus the open thread. I've found more and more that there are topics I'd like to tackle, but the schedule I have to maintain doesn't really give me the time I need to deal with them. Guest posts, if any, will go on Wednesdays, but I will commit to not filling that slot myself to save my sanity. In practice, I'm still going to have all of November off because of the fruits of the DC trip. So I'll see you all on the 31st, and I'm looking forward to starting year 5.

In early April, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a remote cluster of rocks in the South Atlantic. The first British units to respond were their nuclear submarines, with HMS Spartan and HMS Splendid sailing south before the outbreak of war, soon joined by HMS Conqueror and HMS Valiant. All four boats played a vital role in securing control of the seas for the British, most prominently when Conqueror sunk the cruiser General Belgrano, sending the Argentine Navy to huddle in its territorial waters for the rest of the war. But their success in securing maritime superiority didn't mean the end of the war for the British boats.

Conqueror

As the amphibious force closed in on the Falklands, Conqueror was forced to withdraw to deal with more communications problems, this time with the high-frequency trailing wire antenna. All three onboard had failed, and the first attempt to repair one, on May 21st, resulted in the wire getting wrapped around the propeller, causing major cavitation² at any speed above 7 kts. A diver would have to go down and clear it, but the weather was too rough to surface for two days. Eventually, the wire was cleared, and Conqueror was back in the fight, which had finally moved ashore. Read more...

In early April, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a few desolate rocks in the South Atlantic. The first British units to respond were their nuclear submarines, with HMS Spartan and HMS Splendid sailing south before the outbreak of war. HMS Conqueror soon followed, and despite various obstacles, both technical and political, the first two boats arrived in mid-April, and immediately began to assert British control over the seas around the islands.

HMS Spartan

Spartan's first destination off the Falklands was Stanley, where she conducted a periscope reconnaissance of the town, the first outside information since the invasion. One vital piece of intelligence was quickly gained when she saw two vessels laying mines, which the Task Force had previously believed the Argentine forces didn't have the capability to do. Unfortunately, the ROE prevented Spartan from sinking the ships and disrupting the minelayers, and she remained near Stanley until April 21st. Read more...

When I wrote my series on the Falklands War, there was one major gap in my account. At the time, I had very little information on the exploits of the British submarines during the war, with one notable exception. But I've since acquired new sources, which shed light on this aspect of the conflict.

HMS Dreadnought in earlier days

The story actually begins five years before the outbreak of war. In 1977, Britain and Argentina began negotiations over the future of the Falklands, and Argentina's hard-line position concerned the British enough that they began to worry about an invasion. That November, a naval force was dispatched to the South Atlantic, with frigates Phoebe and Alacrity, auxiliaries Olwen, Cherryleaf and Resurgent and HMS Dreadnought, Britain's first nuclear submarine. Dreadnought, underway for a deployment to Australia, was diverted to Gibraltar and prepared for war, including loading extra food and removing bunks to hold more torpedoes. So much equipment was taken on board that it was discovered she was too heavy to be neutrally buoyant at periscope depth.³ Dreadnought was dispatched to the seaward approaches to the Falklands, and her orders are a matter of dispute, with some claiming that in the event of Argentine aggression, she was to expose herself to make the implied threat clear, or even had carte blanche to shoot if they moved within range of the islands. She was never detected by the Argentinians,⁴ but it seems likely that her presence was quietly revealed to their government by the British in an attempt to deter them from taking action. The rest of the force, with the exception of Cherryleaf, remained well to the north of the islands, and returned home in early 1978 as the crisis abated. One of the biggest results was the patrol report Dreadnought brought home, which proved invaluable four years later when the RN again had to operate in the little-known waters of the South Atlantic. Read more...

It's time for our regular Open Thread. Talk about whatever you want, even if it's not naval/military.

Looking forward to seeing people next weekend in DC. If anyone wants to join me and Cassander at the Navy Museum, let us know by Thursday. And any readers who want to join the DSL group at Air and Space should be welcome.

2018 overhauls are Light AA Guns, Going back to Iowa, the Washington Treaty, Survivability - Flooding, my review of LA maritime sites and Falklands Part 7. 2019 overhauls are Dumb Bombs and LGBs, Riverine Warfare - China Parts two and three and pictures of Iowa's officers quarters. 2020 overhauls are Naval Bases from Space - Hampton Roads, Military Sealift Command Parts one and two, The Midway Rant and List of Battleship Losses.

I recently finished Norman Friedman's British Destroyers and Frigates, and while I have no intention of serializing the whole thing here, there were a few particular ships that he discussed which seemed worth looking at in more detail for what they show about warship procurement.

HMS Bristol

Our saga begins in the early 60s, when Britain was looking at building its second generation of postwar missile ships. The main task was to protect the new carriers that were also being designed, which in turn would need new weapons. The Sea Slug used by the County class, the first British missile ships, was a rather clumsy system, and it was to be replaced by the Sea Dart. Anti-submarine firepower would be provided by the Australian Ikara system, a remote-controlled rocket glider that could reach out to 20,000 yards or so, the maximum range achievable by sonars of the day. Both systems were necessary because the British expected to face down Soviet proxies armed with the latest in Eastern Bloc weapons, including nuclear submarines. Read more...

On April 9th, 1940, Hitler unleashed his military machine on Norway, breaking that country's neutrality and overwhelming the unprepared defenders at cities including Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavangar and Bergen. But the biggest threat to the plan was not the Norwegians. It was the British, and most of the Royal Navy's ships in home waters were in the North and Norwegian seas when the attack was launched. The bulk of Home Fleet had sailed on the 7th and as information about the attack trickled in, it was steaming in the gap between the Orkney Islands and Norway, well-placed to respond. Further north, a force led by the battlecruiser Renown had been tasked with covering minelaying operations on the 8th, and while they had missed the Germans headed for Narvik under cover of a storm, they would be the first to see action.

Renown

The destroyers headed for Narvik had been covered by battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, who had headed out into the Norwegian Sea, straight into the teeth of a major storm. Both ships took a pounding, with Scharnhorst having to shut down one shaft temporarily after a broken ventilator let water contaminate several fuel tanks. The British fared slightly better, although conditions aboard the nine destroyers escorting Renown were as bad as anything the old hands could remember, and as the storm began to calm at daybreak, they turned southeast, back towards the entrance to Narvik. The Germans were ahead of them, on the opposite course, and Renown sighted the first of them at 0337, ten miles to the east and silhouetted against the dawn sky. Admiral William Whitworth, commanding the British force, ordered Renown to match course with the German ships, as his position gave him a major tactical advantage. Read more...

April of 1940 began with the war in Europe at a stalemate, as both sides stared at each other across the Franco-German border. The first action of the war in the West was the German invasion of Norway, in the hopes of securing iron ore supplies and opening a new flank on the war at sea, outside the British blockade. The Norwegians largely expected their neutrality to hold, and while the forces available generally fought back, they were confused and aimless, leading to a number of German victories across the southern half of the country.

A gun at Kvarven Fortress

One of the German targets was Bergen, the second-largest city in the country.⁵ It was the headquarters of Admiral Carsten Tank-Nielsen, who was responsible for the section of coast stretching from Stavanger to Trondheim, and who, unusually among Norwegian senior officers, took the threat of attack seriously. On April 8th, he ordered his ships to full readiness, although this wasn't communicated clearly to the coastal defenses that guarded Bergen. As was the case elsewhere in Norway, these dated back to the turn of the century, and hadn't really been modernized. The main defense of the city rested with Kvarven Fort, armed with a trio each of 21 cm guns and 24 cm howitzers. A second fort at Hellen had another three 21 cm guns, and various outer forts had lighter guns, although they were considered useless without their protective minefields, which couldn't be laid without authorization from Oslo. Another heavy battery was completely unmanned, and a torpedo battery similar to the one that guarded the entrance to Oslo was inexplicably overlooked in the preparations. Read more...